Voices from the mine’ is a new 33-minute documentary film by University of Bath researcher, Dr Roy Maconachie. It focuses on resource governance in Sierra Leone's artisanal diamond mining sector, tracing the pathway of diamonds from pit to market, and documenting the stories of different stakeholders along the way. In doing so, the film depicts the challenges of local level governance in the sector, shows why benefits do not accrue to those working at the bottom of the chain, and sheds light on why it is so difficult to formalize artisanal mining. The film was produced with funding from the San Francisco-based organization, Humanity United, and was shot on location in Kono District, Sierra Leone and Antwerp, Belgium.

REZEKI: Gold and Stone Mining in Aceh

“REZEKI: Gold and Stone Mining in Aceh” was produced jointly by SEATIDE and the University of Milano-Bicocca. The 52-minute film is based on Giacomo Tabacco's and Silvia Vignato's research, respectively, on gold and stone mining and on marriage and labour in West Aceh (Indonesia). It is about seeking fortune and fast money in post-tsunami, post-conflict and resource-rich Aceh. It is a choral description of the relationship between a female-centred, matrifocal agricultural work and landscape (which includes men's work too) and the obstentatiously male risky work of gold miners, up in the mountains, in the pits compounds where women are banned. It is, therefore, a film about young men desiring success and girls, and young women laughing about them. It is also a vision of landscapes of different resources. Continue reading here.


 

Gold fever in Sakolabada

Sakolabada is a new town which completely depends on gold mining. Officially, it doesn´t exist, it doesn´t show on any official administrative map.  However, in this non-existent town, life never stops.

In this film from July 2016, Sidylamine Bagayoko (University of Bamako-ULSHB) explores some of the urgent dynamics associated with artisanal gold mining and (informal) settlements in Mali.